D. T. K, ncd- after William B=r C h
vJEOKGE INN, SECONr AND AlOH .^TR^fiTS
The
"i"0"^ S™"*? of Pennsylvania
THE
Pennsylvania
Magazine
OF HISTORY
AND
BIOGRAPHY
The Proprietors of the Province of
Cast New Jersey, 1682-1702
proprietor of East New Jersey, died on
January 13, 1681, at a ripe age. By the terms of his will his
widow became the executrix of his estate and the guardian of
his grandson and heir, George Carteret. Young George at the tender
age of eight had been married to the youngest daughter of the Earl
of Bath in order to insure the continuance of ties between two stanch
Cavalier families. Since the elder Carteret was deeply in debt, his
estate was devised to six noblemen, including Bath, in trust for his
creditors. A sale of the province of East New Jersey to Thomas
Cremer and Thomas Pococke fell through, although they could have
had it "for the small sum of between five and six thousand pounds."
Perhaps the knowledge that West New Jersey had been purchased
from John Lord Berkeley only half a dozen years before for £1,000
acted as a damper. As a result East New Jersey was put up at public
auction and sold to twelve proprietors, headed by William Penn, for
£3,400. The deeds of lease and release were dated February 1-2,
1682. With the exception of Robert West, a lawyer of the Middle
Temple, and possibly Thomas Wilcox, a London goldsmith who
dropped out immediately, the purchasers were Quakers. This fact is
significant, for the province of West Jersey was already a thriving
S
IR GEORGE CARTERET,
251
252
JOHN E. POMFRET
July
colony under Friends' auspices, and Penn had recently obtained his
patent for Pennsylvania. The temptation for Penn and his Quaker
associates to obtain complete control of the entire area from the
Hudson to the Chesapeake was too strong to resist.
The twelve proprietors of East Jersey were William Penn of
Worminghurst, Sussex; Robert West, lawyer, of the Middle Temple;
Thomas Rudyard, gentleman and lawyer, of London; Samuel Groom,
mariner, of Stepney, Middlesex; Thomas Wilcox, goldsmith, of London; Thomas Hart, merchant, of Enfield; Richard Mew, baker, of
Middlesex; Ambrose Rigge, gentleman, of Gatton Place, Surrey;
John Hey wood, citizen and upholsterer, of London; Hugh Hartshorne, citizen and upholsterer, of London; Clement Plumsted,
citizen and draper, of London; and Thomas Cooper, citizen and
merchant-tailor, of London. On June 1, 1682, "William Penn and his
partners" signed agreements permitting the benefit of survivorship.1
Before Penn left for America in August, 1682, a significant change
took place in the proprietorship. The twelve associates decided "to
take in twelve persons more, to make up the number of proprietors
[to] twenty four."2 This was accomplished by each owner transferring
half his share to a new proprietor. Since Wilcox had sold out entirely,
there were eleven old proprietors and thirteen new proprietors. The
new proprietors consisted of five London men, all Quakers; two
Dublin men, both Quakers; and six Scots, two of whom were
Quakers. The London men were Edward Byllynge, gentleman and
brewer, of Westminster, Middlesex, and chief proprietor of West
Jersey; William Gibson, citizen and haberdasher and a prominent
Quaker minister; Thomas Barker, a merchant; and James Brain,
son-in-law of Groom, and a merchant. Robert Turner and Thomas
Warne were Dublin merchants. The Scots were James, Earl of Perth,
and his brother, the Honorable John Drummond, later Viscount
Melfort of Lundy; Robert Barclay, the great Quaker apologist, and
his younger brother David; Robert Gordon of Cluny, Barclay's uncle
and a merchant; and Arent Sonmans, the Dutch-born Quaker merchant of Wallingford. The actual transfers took place in August and
1 New Jersey Archives (NJA)> First Series (Newark, Paterson, and Trenton, N. J., 1880I949)> I, 366-369, 373-376; XXI, 52.
2 "A Brief Account of the Province of East-Jersey in America . . . (1682)," in Samuel
Smith, The History of the Colony of Nova Caesaria, or New Jersey (Burlington, N. J., 1765),
543; NJAy I, 383-394.
1953
PROPRIETORS OF EAST NEW J E R S E Y
253
September, 1682. A new patent bearing the dates March 13-14,1683,
was then issued to the Twenty-Four Proprietors by James, Duke of
York.
The roster of the Twenty-Four Proprietors, twenty of whom were
Friends, gives one the impression that East New Jersey was as
solidly a Quaker enterprise as West Jersey and Pennsylvania. Indeed,
there was a surprising overlap in the underwriting of the three
colonies. Quakers appear in overwhelming majority among the owners of the One Hundred Proprieties of West New Jersey, among the
First Purchasers of Pennsylvania, and among the Twenty-Four
Proprietors of East New Jersey. Moreover, the principals of all three
undertakings were Quakers: Edward Byllynge was governor and
chief proprietor of West New Jersey, Penn was governor and chief
proprietor of Pennsylvania, and Robert Barclay was "governor for
life" of East New Jersey. Of the Twenty-Four Proprietors, Penn,
Lawrie, Rudyard, Sonmans, Turner and Mew were also proprietors
of West Jersey, and Penn, Rudyard, Sonmans, Rigge, Barker and
Gibson were First Purchasers of Pennsylvania. George Fox and the
other Quaker leaders stood firmly behind the plan of colonization in
America. In the process of fractioning that took place, from 1683 to
1685 especially, other prominent Friends shared in underwriting the
East Jersey venture. Among them were Thomas Cox, William Bingley, and Thomas Robinson of England, and Anthony Sharp and
Samuel Claridge of Ireland.
None of the three Quaker colonies could have been established
without the aid and good will of the Stuarts, Charles II and his
brother James, Duke of York. Regardless of other shortcomings, the
Stuarts did not forget those who had given their house aid in times of
adversity. The debt of Charles II to Admiral Penn was handsomely
repaid with the grant of Pennsylvania to William Penn. The Duke
of York, too, never forgot that the young Penn was the son of an old
shipmate; indeed, it is reliably reported that Admiral Penn on his
deathbed had commended his son to the Duke. From 1676 on, James
bestowed one favor after another upon Penn: confirmation of the
right of government of West Jersey to Byllynge in 1680, assistance
in obtaining the grant of Pennsylvania in 1681, a grant for the Lower
Counties (Delaware) in 1682, and a royal patent for East Jersey in
1683. Through the years, there developed between the two men an
254
JOHN E. POMFRET
July
abiding friendship, which survived the Revolution of 1688 and led
Penn to risk a charge of high treason rather than abandon his correspondence with the exiled King.
Penn, for whom liberty of conscience was a veritable passion, held
steadily to the belief that James, as Duke and later as King, might
be persuaded to bring about religious freedom for the Friends, if not
for all Christians. There had been little abatement in religious persecution since the advent of Charles II to the throne. In 1672 he issued
a short-lived Declaration of Indulgence to Papish Recusants and
Protestant Dissenters which a suspicious Parliament forced him to
withdraw immediately. In its place, Parliament adopted the Test
Act, after which an active persecution began again. James's second
marriage in 1673 to Maria Beatrice of Modena, a Catholic, and his
public denial of the Church of England in 1676 led not only to a
movement to exclude him from the succession, but to unremitting
pressure to enforce the laws of conformity. Although the Friends
were regarded as "quiet"—that is, politically harmless—Penn and
his Quaker associates had come to the conclusion as early as 1674
that one measure of relief lay in establishing an asylum in the New
World. However, Penn persisted in his efforts to secure the removal
of disabilities, since only a fraction of the thousands of Friends who
suffered imprisonment during the Restoration could hope to emigrate. In the last decade of Charles's reign, there was little hope of
relief; the atmosphere was charged with plot and counterplot, and
the Exclusion question colored all else. When James succeeded in
1685, there were 1,300 Friends in prison and more than a hundred
had died there since 1680. Little wonder then that Penn turned
expectantly to the new ruler for alleviation.
James's intention of granting a coronation pardon was delayed for
almost a year because of the Monmouth Rebellion. In March, 1686,
however, it was issued, followed by a royal warrant releasing scheduled lists of Friends from prison and remitting the fines of others.
Steps were taken, too, to put a stop to the wretched practice of public informing. Thus the weight of twenty-five years of persecution
lifted as far as the Friends were concerned, but there was no guarantee that the persecution might not be renewed. As it turned out, this
was to be the end. Joseph Besse, in his great Collection of the Sufferings of the "People called ghtakersy published in 1753, regards 1686 as
I953
PROPRIETORS OF EAST NEW JERSEY
255
the last year of the persecutions. In it he lists eighty-five Quakers,
some of them women, whose memory should be cherished for their
courage in holding meetings and preaching in the time of adversity.
Among those so cited were six of the Twenty-Four Proprietors of
East Jersey: William Penn, Robert Barclay, Ambrose Rigge, William
Gibson, Clement Plumsted and John Hey wood; and two who later
purchased fractions, William Bingley and Thomas Robinson.3
In April, 1687, James issued his First Declaration of Indulgence,
suspending the penal laws. Although he blandly alluded to the forthcoming concurrence of Parliament, he was widely condemned for
straining the royal prerogative to the breaking point and, indeed, for
violating the spirit of English institutions. But the Quakers rejoiced;
they saw no danger to the realm in the presence of 30,000 Catholics
in a population of five million. In November William and Mary
issued from Holland a manifesto on religious toleration that immediately gained for them the trust and confidence of the English people.
In April, 1688, James issued his Second Declaration, but made the
blunder of requiring that it be read from the pulpits. The birth of a
son to the King made the Revolution inevitable. In May, after the
Revolution, the great Toleration Act of 1689 w a s passed. At the
time, Penn and Barclay were suspect because of their close relations
with James and had no active part in this notable achievement. But
their earlier efforts entitle them to an honorable place in the history
of religious toleration.4
Meanwhile, in the late summer of 1682, William Penn had sailed
for America to develop his proprietary grant there. He had been
remarkably successful in gaining support for his undertaking. As
inviting as the prospect may have seemed for launching a Quaker
colony in East Jersey, for there was a nucleus of Quaker settlers
there, Penn had little time to devote to its promotion. The initiative
in developing East Jersey passed quickly into the hands of the Scots
under the leadership of a remarkable young Friend, Robert Barclay
of Ury. According to one account, "in the month of September
[1682], the earls of Perth and Melfort, with other proprietors, elected
3 Joseph Besse, Collection of the Sufferings of the People called Quakers (London, 1753), I,
484.
4
William C. Braithwaite, The Second Period of Quakerism (London, 1921), 88-175 passim;
F. C. Turner, James II (London, 1948), passim.
2$6
JOHN E. POMFRET
July
him governor of East Jersey, and to induce him to accept thereof,
they gifted him a propriety, with 5,000 acres more for him to bestow
as he should think fit, the government being confirmed to him, during
life, by King Charles II." 5 Barclay was a popular choice, for he was
revered by the Quakers and enjoyed the confidence of the Scottish
proprietors. Though he never resided in the colony his services were
highly complimented in a resolution adopted in 1687 by the resident
Board of Proprietors. Even George Scot, author of The zJXCodel ofthe
government of the 'Province of 8ast-J\(ew-Jersey in ^America believed
him well-qualified in spite of his Quaker principles, and on that score
wrote that the London proprietors would not have invested so heavily had they believed he would neglect the defense of the colony.
Penn and Barclay remained firm friends until Barclay's death in
1690. There was no rivalry in promotion and no competition for
settlers. Barclay confined his efforts to the Scots, and except for
William Dockwra, a non-Quaker whose interest was solely financial,
the English proprietors undertook no promotional activities among
the English Friends.
Among the Quakers Barclay ranks with George Fox and William
Penn and intellectually he was their superior. His friend and countryman, George Keith, could equal him in the narrow area of theology, but was not his peer as a Christian humanist. Barclay's
father, Colonel David Barclay, was converted to Quakerism in 1666.
His mother was Catherine Gordon, daughter of Sir Robert Gordon of
Gordonstown. While a resident at Scots College in Paris, Robert was
called home because his dying mother feared the Catholic influences
of France. In 1667 he, too, joined the Society of Friends. He continued his studies, augmenting his knowledge of French and Latin
with that of Greek and Hebrew. Reinforced with a degree of learning
and logical skill unusual among Friends he embarked upon his career
as a Quaker apologist, and because of his great learning, his writings,
and his piety, early won a position of leadership among the Friends.
From 1670 to 1676 he published more than a dozen religious tracts,
which he defended orally and in writing. His defense of his Theses
Theologicae led to the publication, first in Latin then in many languages, of his famous ^Apology. Both Barclay and his father were imprisoned several times during the persecutions in Aberdeen. In 1679
5 Henry Mill, ed., Genealogical Account of the Barclays of Urie . . . (London, 1812), 76.
1953
PROPRIETORS OF EAST NEW JERSEY
257
Robert married Christian Mollison, daughter of the Quaker, Gilbert
Mollison, a merchant of Aberdeen. Barclay wrote little in later years
because of the demands upon him as a minister, as governor of East
Jersey, and as a self-appointed advocate dedicated to wooing James
to a policy of religious toleration.6
Barclay first met James, Duke of York, in 1677 while attempting
to persuade Charles to afford relief to the Quakers of Aberdeen. He
became further acquainted with him during James's two periods of
exile in Scotland, from November, 1679, to February, 1680, and from
October, 1680, to March, 1682. Barclay had access to James through
his kinsman, the powerful Earl of Perth. The Duke took an immediate liking to the sincere young Scot which was strengthened on
James's learning from him that Charles I, his father, was indebted
to the senior Barclay for the loan of £300. The Friends soon learned
of Barclay's advancement to high favor; in February, 1680, for
example, George Fox appealed to Barclay to obtain from James a
confirmation of the right of government to the Quaker proprietors of
the province of West Jersey—"it would be very well if thou couldst
do anything with the Duke of York concerning our poor Friends in
New Jersey." In October, 1680, the Earl of Perth added a significant
postscript—"The Duke speaks wonderfully of you"—in a letter to
Barclay from Edinburgh. By this time, Barclay and James were firm
friends.7
Barclay, like Penn, had risked his reputation by his close association with King James and, in 1689, after the Revolution, he felt compelled to write a "Vindication" in order to combat charges that he
was a Catholic and even a Jesuit. In it he spoke touchingly of the
exiled king: "I never found reason to doubt his sincerity in the
matter of liberty of Conscience which his granting so universally
after he came to the Crown hath to me much confirmed after his
happening to be in Scotland." In conclusion, he stated: "In short,
I must own nor will I decline to avow That I love King James. That
I wish him well. That I have been and am sensibly touched with a
6 Mill, 1-87 passim; David Barclay, Some Account of the Life and Writings of Robert Barclay
(London, 1801), passim; Dictionary of National Biography (DNB), s.u» Barclay, Robert; Besse,
11,510,511,519,524,528,533.
7 Reliquiae Barclaianae (London, 1870), 51. This is a lithographed collection of letters
privately published; one of the few copies extant is in the Quaker Collection, Haverford College. See also Mill, 71.
258
JOHN E. POMFRET
July
feeling of his misfortunes and that I cannot excuse myself from the
duty of praying for him." The last meeting of King and Quaker took
place a few days before William's landing. When Barclay inquired if
there was any hope of an accommodation, James replied that "he
would do anything becoming a gentleman except to part with liberty
of conscience which he never would while he lived."8
Barclay's years from 1682 to 1690 were fruitful ones. In 1682 and
1683 he was busy in London and in Scotland attending to proprietary
business and arranging for the transport of emigrants and cargoes to
East Jersey. Almost overnight he became the chief promoter of the
colony. Undoubtedly, he had interested his cousins Perth and Drummond in the enterprise, as well as his friend Arent Sonmans, his uncle
Gordon of Cluny, and his brother David. All had purchased proprieties. As will appear, he was instrumental in selling shares and fractions thereof as they came on the market to other relatives and
friends. Among his other relatives making purchases were his cousins
Sir John Gordon of Durno, Sir Robert Gordon, the younger, of
Gordonstown, and George Gordon; the Gordons of Straloch, John,
Charles, and Thomas; his sister's husband, Sir Ewen Cameron of
Lochiell; the several Forbeses of Aquorthes, relatives by marriage;
Gilbert Mollison, his father-in-law, and Andrew Jaffray, a close
friend and future father-in-law of one of his daughters. Perth and
Drummond also aided him in official circles; Lord Minevard, Sir
George Mackenzie, Lord Neill Campbell, Sir John Dalrymple, and
several others purchased fractions. Through Barclay's initiative,
about forty-five of a total of eighty-five proprietors entered the
venture, greatly enlarging the Scottish interest and, in effect, making
East Jersey colonization a Scottish enterprise. Unfortunately, Barclay died in his forty-second year, in 1690. The loss of his leadership,
coupled with the cessation of the persecutions, put an end to the
Scottish colonization.
Barclay's notorious cousins, Perth and Drummond, were far from
figureheads in the promotion of East Jersey. In the beginning their
aid was invaluable. James Drummond was the fourth Earl of Perth
and ultimately the first titular duke. His brother, John Drummond,
was successively viscount, earl, and duke of Melfort. Both cast their
lot with James II, and both paid the price of banishment for their
8 Barclay's "Vindication" is published in Reliquiae Barclaianae, 62-71; Mill, 86.
I953
PROPRIETORS OF EAST NEW JERSEY
259
loyalty. In 1682 Perth had risen to be justice-general of Scotland and
was a power in the administration. Drummond became treasurerdeputy in 1681. Both proved themselves singularly adept in attaining
advancement through connivance. Under James II, as chancellor and
first commissioner of the treasury in Scotland, Perth practically controlled the country; and Melfort, emerging as a master of intrigue,
"though in all else incompetent/' was at the time of the Revolution
James's chief lay adviser, being overshadowed in influence only by
the Jesuit, Edward Petre. The Drummonds were among the most
unscrupulous and unprincipled politicians of their generation.9
In 1682 the Drummonds lent their active support to the East
Jersey venture. They were attracted to it first because it afforded an
opportunity of improving their fortunes at small cost; second, the
Duke, their patron, was a sponsor of colonization; and third, James
had taken a liking to Robert Barclay, their cousin. Both, then, for a
short time, undertook to interest others in official circles in Edinburgh in the enterprise.
Unlike West Jersey, the eastern division of the province was not
devoid of settlers. In 1682, when the Twenty-Four Proprietors took
over, East Jersey contained approximately 5,500 inhabitants, principally Puritans from Long Island and New England, and a Dutch
group. There was a scattering of Baptists, Quakers, and other dissenters. About 3,500 of these "old settlers" lived within the town
bounds of the seven settlements at Shrewsbury, Middletown, Woodbridge, Elizabeth, Piscataway, Newark and Bergen. The seven towns
did not vary greatly in population; the largest, Elizabeth, contained
otie hundred and fifty families and the smallest, Bergen, contained
seventy families. Each town claimed, besides ample townlands, "out
plantations," varying from 30,000 to 60,000 acres. Much of this land
was later disputed by the proprietors.10
The Twenty-Four Proprietors soon settled upon a method of land
distribution. Each proprietor was entitled to equal dividends of land;
the first dividend was 10,000 acres. Subsequently, in 1698, there was
0 Turner, passim; DNBy s.v. Drummond, James, and Drummond, John,
10 William A. Whitehead, East Jersey under the Proprietary Governments (Newark, N . J.,
J875), 365-475, reprints most of George Scot, The Model 0} the Government of the Province of
East-New-Jersey in America (Edinburgh, 1685); see especially pages 402-410.
260
JOHN E. POMFRET
July
declared a second dividend of 5,000 acres per share or propriety, and
in 1702, a supplementary dividend of 2,500. Thus, during the proprietary period (1682-1702), a total of 17,500 acres per share was agreed
upon. Those holding fractions of shares, such as one half or 1/10,
would receive proportionate amounts of land. Specific dividends were
assigned in places and areas opened up after the title had been
cleared by purchase from the Indians. Briefly, the owner of each
whole propriety was entitled to four lots and twenty-five acres of
townland in Perth Amboy, to 500 acres at Wickatunk in Monmouth
County, and to 1,200 acres of "Barnegat land" in dividends of 200
and 1,000 acres. Large tracts were opened up later on the South
River and its Toponemus branch, on both banks of the Raritan,
along the Passaic and its branches, along Doctor's Creek, Stony
Brook, Crosswicks Creek, the St. Pink (Assinpink), and the Province
Line. Such lands were not assigned; the individual proprietor or his
agent was required to apply to the resident Board of Proprietors for
warrants for lands in proportion to his rights. A survey of the tract
located was then made, and if no other claim existed, it was accepted
by the surveyor-general and entered upon the records.
This system of land distribution was an awkward one, as it was in
West Jersey, entitling the owner to an indeterminate number of
dividends of an indeterminate number of acres each. In East Jersey,
as in West Jersey, it is difficult to trace the chain of title to the
individual proprieties. The task is easier in East Jersey, first because
there were only twenty-four shares to deal with and secondly, because the value per share was too great to be regarded as a donation
for founding an asylum for fellow Friends and, as in the case of many
West Jersey subscribers, cast aside. Furthermore, the East Jersey
records were somewhat better kept than those of the sister province.
As mentioned above, the London proprietors willingly left the
initiative to Barclay and the Scottish proprietors. Nevertheless,
since they had invested capital in the enterprise, most of them attended the proprietors' meetings and worked closely with Governor
Barclay until his death in 1690. As time passed the leadership in
London was gradually assumed by William Dockwra, who was
formally appointed register and secretary of the province in the year
of Barclay's death. Dockwra was an ambitious, self-seeking man,
whose arbitrary conduct led to his repudiation in 1702 by the
resident Board of Proprietors.
1953
PROPRIETORS OF EAST NEW JERSEY
26l
The principal Scots proprietors were Perth, Drummond, Barclay,
Sonmans, Gordon of Cluny and his "partner" Gawen Lawrie, Robert
Burnett who had purchased Heywood's share, and Sir George
Mackenzie, Lord Register of Scotland, who had purchased one
quarter of Perth's share. In August, 1683, these men jointly sent out
a cargo valued at nearly £1,000 in the Exchange. This venture was
underwritten as follows: Sonmans' Heirs, £343; Perth, Drummond,
and Mackenzie, £100; Barclay, £100; Gordon and Lawrie, £100;
Burnett and his partners, £100; and David Falconer, who later purchased a small fraction, £50. The Scots proprietors also transported
twenty-two indentured servants, entitling them to twenty-five acres
of land per servant on the "Scots Proprietors Head Land" on the
upper Rahway River. The Exchange carried other passengers, some
of whom owned fractions and some of whom transported servants.
The Scots proprietors also located several tracts of land in common,
the largest of which, on the South River, was reputed to contain
8,000 acres. Since the co-operative undertaking failed to gain momentum, these tracts were soon divided among the several proprietors.
There was henceforth no pooling of lands, settlers, or servants.11
After the importation of about two hundred and fifty servants in
the years 1683 a n d 1684, ^ ew others were transported. In 1685,
Governor Barclay attempted to obtain fifty prisoners for indenture,
but failed. Later in the same year George Scot of Pitlochie, author of
The zModel of the (government of . . . £ast-^h(ew-Jerseyy was assigned
one hundred prisoners. His subsequent voyage was tragic; an epidemic developed that cost him his life and the lives of most aboard.
Only twenty-two reached New Jersey. The Court of Common Right
refused to compel them to sign indentures of service, and practically
all of them removed to New England. Contrary to popular belief,
there was no large importation of indentured servants from Scotland,
and few Covenanters came to East Jersey either before or after the
Argyll insurrection. The servants who did come were men and women
of modest circumstances who hoped to benefit themselves after completing their terms.12 Actually, the system of headrights was discon11 Whitehead, East Jersey, 136-138.
12 Robert Wodrow, History of the Sufferings of the Church of Scotland . . . (Edinburgh,
1830), IV, 216-223 passiniy 331-334; Sir John Lauder of Fountainhall, Historical Notices of
Scotish Affairs (Edinburgh, 1848), II, 586, 664. Scot's motley group consisted of some persons
of "phanaticall principles," some "criminall prisoners," and some "distressed by poverty,
debt, and captions, or were whoores or prodigall wasters."
262
JOHN E. POMFRET
July
tinued after January, 1686. Since the active persecution of Quakers
in Scotland came to an end in 1679, ^ w a s v e l T difficult thereafter to
attract Scottish Quakers to East Jersey. A renewal of the persecutions, with which Barclay was ever concerned, would have yielded a
different result.
In discussing the Twenty-Four Proprietors, twenty of whom were
Friends, each will be identified first as an individual, and second in
relation to the nature and extent of his interest in the East Jersey
colonization during the proprietary period. The order in which the
proprietors are presented should enable the reader, with the background of the foregoing pages in mind, to follow the steps by which
the promotion, under Barclay's skillful guidance, shifted from an
English Quaker sponsorship centered at London to a Scottish interest. The first of two sections deals with the London men—Rudyard,
Groom, and Lawrie—who went to the province as officials; then with
Penn and Byllynge, proprietors of the sister provinces; and finally
with men whose interest, whether active or inactive, did not become
involved in the transfer to the Scots. The second section is devoted
to the original Scottish proprietors—the Drummonds, the Barclays,
Gordon of Cluny and Arent Sonmans—and those English proprietors
—Heywood, Plumsted, Rigge and Cooper—who, through Robert
Barclay's influence, conveyed to later Scottish proprietors. The chain
of title of each of the twenty-four proprieties is traced to 1702, the
date of the end of the proprietary period. To make this account as
realistic as possible and to fit it into its proper place in the complicated history of East Jersey, the processes of the distribution of lands
among the proprietors have been described and each proprietor's or
fractioner's dividends of land located.
Proprietor Thomas Rudyard, "A Man skilful in the Law of the
Land, and zealous for the Liberties of the People," was an intimate
friend and business associate of William Penn. He was a Quaker of
note; indeed, in 1670, while the famous Penn-Mead trial was in
progress at Old Bailey, he too was tried and fined £100, an enormous
penalty, "being convicted of several Trespasses and Contempts."
During the years from 1675 to 1678 Rudyard's goods were distrained
several times for tithes. In 1671 and in 1677 Rudyard had accompanied Penn and other leading Quakers on missionary journeys to the
*953
PROPRIETORS OF EAST NEW JERSEY
263
Continent. In 1676 he and William Mead were appointed by the
Meeting for Sufferings to correspond with Friends in Durham and
Northumberland regarding the persecutions there, and with James
Claypoole, to correspond with Friends in Staffordshire and Derbyshire. Rudyard's office was located in George Yard, Lombard Street,
London, and here, under Penn's direction, many of the documents
and deeds for New Jersey and Pennsylvania were drawn up. Rudyard, a man of considerable means, was himself a proprietor of West
Jersey, a First Purchaser of Pennsylvania with 3,000 acres, and one
of the Twenty-Four Proprietors of East Jersey. Just before emigrating from East Jersey to Barbados at the end of 1685, he deeded a
fourth of his propriety to his daughter, Anne West, and another
fourth to a second daughter, Margaret Winder, and constituted their
husbands, John West and Samuel Winder, his agents in East Jersey.
He died in Barbados in 1692, leaving his property in East Jersey and
in Rudyard, Staffordshire, his birthplace, to his children. Rudyard
had left the Society of Friends in about 1682.13
Samuel Groom was a mariner and a well-known Quaker. In 1676
he had published in London a tract, QA Qlass for the People of ft(ew
England^ and in the same year was appointed by the Meeting for
Sufferings to correspond with persecuted Friends in Virginia and
Maryland. He had been associated with the Friends' efforts to
colonize in New Jersey from the beginning. His ship had visited West
Jersey and Maryland in 1676 and in 1681 his son, Samuel Groom, Jr.,
had purchased a quarter-share in West Jersey. Groom emigrated to
East Jersey in November, 1682, but died suddenly in the late summer
of 1683, leaving unfinished on the stocks the first ship to be constructed in the province. Following his death, George Fox visited his
widow Elizabeth in Ratcliffe several times. In July, just before his
death, Groom's son sold the East Jersey propriety to the influential
William Dockwra.14
In September, 1682, the proprietors appointed Thomas Rudyard
deputy-governor and secretary-register of the province and Samuel
13 Besse, 1,426,428,438,439; Letters 0}Early Friends . . . , ed. by A. R. Barclay (London,
1841), 348; NJA, X X I , 68, 96, 140, 210; The Journal of George Fox, ed. by Norman Penney
(Cambridge, 1911), II, 420; The Short Journal and Itinerary Journals of George Fox, ed. by
Norman Penney (New York, 1925), 358.
a NJA, I, 227; X X I , 58, 6$; Fox, Short Journal, 113, 135, 136; Letters of Early Friends,
349. For William Dockwra, see below, pages 266-267.
264
JOHN E. POMFRET
July
Groom, surveyor-general and receiver-general. These men arrived at
Elizabethtown in November, and Rudyard took office in December.
Like Samuel Groom, he was an original member of the Court of
Common Right established in 1683 by the Assembly, and he was one
of the few justices of that court during the whole proprietary period
with any legal experience.15
In the province, Groom and Rudyard fell out over the method of
distributing lands. Groom, following the Concessions of 1665, insisted that a fraction of all lands surveyed should be reserved to the
general proprietors, but Rudyard and his Council objected to this
policy. Groom's conduct, however, was upheld by Thomas Warne,
the Irish proprietor, who had arrived in May, 1683. Nevertheless,
Rudyard removed Groom as surveyor-general, thus causing a rift
between the two men. Governor Barclay, on being apprised of the
situation, appointed Gawen Lawrie deputy-governor in July, 1683.
Rudyard was permitted to continue as secretary-register. He attended the first meetings of the Board of Proprietors, from April to
November, 1685, before moving to Barbados.16
Proprietor James Brain became one of the Twenty-Four Proprietors through purchase from Groom, his father-in-law. He, too, was a
prominent Friend. In 1676 he was delegated by the Meeting for
Sufferings to correspond with Friends in Sussex and Kent, as well as
in Virginia and Maryland. In 1681 he and several others were distrained of goods worth £35 for continuing a meeting outdoors after
the meeting place had been occupied by a soldiers' guard. Brain
attended the proprietors' meetings in London and paid his assessments, but he never came to East Jersey. On his death in 1690, his
three sons inherited, but it was not until 1698 that they applied for
their first dividend of lands.17
15 For membership on the bench of the Court of Common Right, see Journal of the Courts
of Common Right and Chancery of East New Jersey, ed. by Preston W. Edsall (Philadelphia,
l
93l)y 35~37- Within the province of East Jersey the Court of Common Right was "truly
supreme."
16 David McGregor, "The Board of Proprietors of East Jersey," Proceedings of the New
Jersey Historical Society (PNJHS), New Series, VII (1922), 177-195 passim; A Bill in the
Chancery of New-Jersey, . . . at the Suit of John Earl of Stair . . . against Benjamin Bond
. . . (New York, 1747), 86, hereafter cited as Stair v. Bond.
17 Letters of Early Friends, 347, 349; Besse, I, 449, 471; George J. Miller, ed., The Minutes
of the Board of Proprietors of the Eastern Division of New Jersey from 1685 to IJ05 (Perth
Amboy, N. J., 1949), 126, 229, hereafter cited as MPEJ.
I953
PROPRIETORS OF EAST NEW JERSEY
265
Proprietor Gawen Lawrie of London, Rudyard's successor as
deputy-governor, is believed to be of Scottish descent. In the 'Brief
^Account (1683), he is listed among the Scots proprietors, but only
because he was the partner of Gordon of Cluny. In 1676 Lawrie was
appointed by the Meeting for Sufferings, with John Swinton and
William Welch, to correspond with Scottish Quakers. From the start,
he had been interested in Quaker colonization in America; from 1675
to 1683 he served as one of the Byllynge Trustees of West Jersey and
had purchased two of the One Hundred Proprieties. Lawrie became
one of the Twenty-Four Proprietors of East Jersey in 1682 through
purchasing a share from Thomas Wilcox. Since this share had been
acquired in trust for the Sonmans children, he purchased at Governor
Barclay's suggestion a half-share from Gordon of Cluny, in August,
1683, to qualify him as deputy-governor. Nearly a year before his
appointment, Lawrie had submitted a long memorandum on colonization to the Scottish proprietors, at their invitation. His commission was issued in July, 1683, but he did not arrive in the province until the end of February, 1684. With him came his son-in-law
and business associate, William Haige, who was also a First Purchaser
of Pennsylvania and owner of a West Jersey propriety which he sold
subsequently to Penn. Lawrie also brought over his daughter Rebecca, four indentured servants, and two Negroes. Haige was accompanied by his wife Mary, two indentured servants, and four Negroes.18
Since Groom had died, Lawrie personally appointed Haige as his
surveyor-general. In August, 1684, however, the proprietors agreed
upon new regulations regarding the distribution of lands and sent
them out with George Keith, whom they appointed surveyor-general
on a permanent basis. Their instructions provided for resident commissioners who, with the deputy-governor, would safeguard the
proprietors' interests in the allocation of lands. They were appointed,
wrote Dockwra, "for the affairs of land," and among their duties
were the settlement of disputes between the proprietors and the "old
settlers" concerning titles and quitrents, the purchase of lands from
!8 A Brief Account of the Province of East Jersey in America . . . , by the Scots Proprietors
(Edinburgh, 1683), reprinted in Whitehead, East Jersey, 328; Whitehead, East Jersey, 137
(note); PNJHS, VII, 5, 12 (note); *'Propositions of Gawen Lawrie for the Settlement of East
Jersey, 1682," ibid, VI (1921), 229-233; NJA, I, 529; XXI, 61; Letters of Early Friends, 349;
Bill in the Chancery of New Jersey at the Suit of Robert Barclay against William, Earl of Stirling
(Burlington, N. J., 1773), 6, hereafter cited as Barclay v. Stirling.
266
JOHN E. POMFRET
July
the Indians, the setting out of lands, the granting of warrants of
survey, and the assignment of lots and townlands in Perth Amboy.
Such was the origin of the resident Board of Proprietors whose meetings began in April, 1685, an(A have continued until the present time.
During the proprietary period its meetings were presided over by the
deputy-governor. Except for the deputy-governor and Warne, all its
members were Scots—John Campbell, James Johnstone, Thomas
Fullerton, Thomas Gordon, John Barclay and David Mudie. In
June, 1685, the Board of Proprietors acted to prohibit the provincial
council from meddling in the matter of lands. By the same token, no
proprietors were permitted to serve on the provincial council. With
the accession of Lord Neill Campbell in October, 1686, and under his
successor, Andrew Hamilton, this situation was remedied, although
the resumption of interlocking control was not liked by the "old
settlers."19
Lawrie was replaced in 1686 principally because he was suspected
of laying out lands without inviting all the proprietors to share in
their distribution. His successor, Lord Neill Campbell, a political
exile who had fled Scotland in January, 1686, returned in March of
the following year, as soon as things had quieted down there. He had
been appointed deputy-governor because, among other reasons, the
Scottish proprietors were now in major control of the colonization.
Lawrie remained in the province as receiver-general until his death
in the fall of 1687. The records indicate that he obtained warrants for
4,500 acres in various parts of the province, the amount of land to
which he was entitled as owner of a half-share. He was survived by
his widow and daughters, Mary Haige, and Rebecca, the wife of
Miles Forster. In 1698 they issued a confirmatory deed to Rachel
Ormston, daughter of Arent Sonmans, for the propriety that Lawrie
held in trust for the Sonmans children.20
William Dockwra, who had purchased the Groom propriety in
July, 1683, took a very active interest in the promotion of settlement.
He invested to the extent of £100 in the Scottish proprietors' cargo
of 1683, and during the next two years sent out thirty-five indentured
servants. In March, 1685, Governor Lawrie wrote to the London
proprietors that "the Scots and William Dockwra's people coming
19 PAT/i/61, VII, 187, 191.
20 NJA, X X I , 306.
^9 S3
PROPRIETORS OF EAST NEW JERSEY
267
now and settling, advance the Province more than it hath been
advanced in ten years." Next to the Sonmans' Heirs, Dockwra paid
the largest charges in support of the province, a total of £110 from
1683 t o 1698. In 1685 Dockwra purchased 7/40 of the Thomas Cox
share and half of Mew's share. Outweighing his substantial landed
interest, however, was his conspicuous role on the Council of Proprietors. He quickly proved himself invaluable to the London proprietors
and in March, 1685, they granted him 1,000 acres for his "fidelity,
care and pains in negotiating the public affairs of the province."
Later he was voted an additional 1,200 acres for his services as their
agent. Meanwhile, in July, 1688, he became receiver-general and
treasurer, and in November, 1690, he was appointed secretary and
register. Dockwra never resided in East Jersey; his duties in the
colony were performed by deputies. He was removed for malfeasance
in 1702. Dockwra, remembered chiefly for his contributions in initiating the postal service both in London and in the American colonies,
died in 1716.21
Andrew Hamilton acted as Dockwra's proxy and agent in the
province and the two men worked hand in glove, to their mutual
advantage. In 1686 Dockwra secured headlands on the servants he
had imported and 3,500 acres on the Manalapan; in 1687, 2,000
acres on Crosswicks Creek near the Province Line; in 1688, 2,000
acres on the Passaic above the Falls, 3,000 acres on the Millstone,
and 2,000 between the Raritan and the Millstone; in 1690, 3,000 at
the head of the Assinpink and 3,000 additional on the Passaic. He
was assigned his share of lots and townland of Perth Amboy, a tract
at Wickatunk, and Barnegat lands. In 1700 he received a second
dividend of 3,800 acres between the Millstone and the Assinpink and
800 acres along the Millstone. It would appear that Dockwra had
obtained far more land than he was legitimately entitled to.22
Proprietor William Penn arrived in America in October, 1682, and
visited both East and West Jersey the following year. Early in
March, 1683, he attended meetings of the Council of East Jersey
which were presided over by Thomas Rudyard, the newly arrived
21 Ibid., I, 529; II, 205; X X I , 61, 65, 71; Stair v. Bond, 83; Barclay v. Stirling, 18; MPEJ,
107, 178; DNB, s.v. Dockwra, William.
22 NJA, II, 27-28, 31-33; X X I , 71, 114, 123, 126, 129, 136, 211, 236, 322; MPEJ, 106,
n o , 133, 162, 166, 170, 172, 178, 186, 189. For Hamilton, see below, pages 290-291.
268
JOHN E. POMFRET
July
deputy-governor.23 Subsequently, since Penn was completely absorbed in Pennsylvania matters, his affairs in East Jersey were looked
after by Captain John Berry of Bergen, and later by other agents.
It was not until 1692 that he took up his rights to lands there. In that
year, John Barclay, acting in his behalf, obtained warrants of survey
for the lands due him on the first dividend. Shortly thereafter, Penn
was confirmed in the ownership of 500 acres at Wickatunk and 1,200
acres at Barnegat, and in the ownership of two vast tracts of 5,500
and 4,000 acres on the Millstone near the Province Line. In addition,
he received the lots and townland in Perth Amboy to which he was
entitled.24
Proprietor Edward Byllynge, chief proprietor and governor of
West Jersey, was also one of the Twenty-Four Proprietors. Since his
claims to lands in dispute between the two colonies had been challenged by the East Jersey proprietors, it was good policy for him to
become a proprietor of East Jersey. Byllynge attended several proprietors' meetings in London and paid his assessments, but took no
active interest in East Jersey affairs. In March, 1686, he sold his
propriety to Dr. Daniel Coxe, the famous land speculator. This share
Coxe sold to Samuel Stancliffe, a London haberdasher, at some time
before June, 1687. Stancliffe had some notion of establishing a settlement "as a refuge to poor banished Protestants." He appointed Peter
Reverdy of London as his agent in the colony, and Governor Barclay,
who was friendly to the undertaking, instructed the East Jersey
Board to lay out two tracts of 5,000 acres each for Stancliffe. In
April, 1688, Reverdy applied for 10,000 acres on the Millstone, and
Stancliffe was vested in the ownership of the two great tracts on the
west side of that stream. The Revolution of 1688 intervened and
nothing more is heard of the scheme. Dr. Coxe later regained control
of the Stancliffe propriety.25
Proprietor Thomas Barker, a London merchant, was a Quaker and
was several times fined and imprisoned for attending Friends' meetings and for refusing to contribute to the support of the militia. In
1687 and 1688 he was one of a committee of London Yearly Meeting
appointed to inspect the accounts relating to Friends' charitable
23 NJA, X I I I , 6-15.
24
"Letters of William Penn," The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography
(PMHB), X X X I I I (1909), 314; NJA, X X I , 199, 205.
25 Ibid., X X I , 113, 117, 122, 316; II, 31, 52, 202; MPEJ> 169; for Dr. Coxe, see below,
pages 271-272.
l
9S3
PROPRIETORS OF EAST NEW JERSEY
269
affairs. Barker sold a half-share in December, 1683, t o Walter Benthall, also a London merchant and a Quaker. As a youth, Benthall
had been imprisoned in Newgate for refusing to take the oath, and
later, when a resident of Barbados, he was fined 2,000 pounds of
sugar for refusing to swear when tendered the office of constable. He
returned to London in about 1680 and spent the remainder of his life
there. Barker was a signer of the Surrender in 1702 by which the
proprietary rights of government were relinquished to the Crown. He
was also a First Purchaser of Pennsylvania. Neither Barker nor Benthall ever came to East Jersey, but both gave close attention to
proprietary matters in London. Thomas Boell acted as their agent in
the province and, in the course of a few years, obtained for each of
them their lots and townlands in Perth Amboy, their Wickatunk
dividend of 250 acres, and 2,000 acres on the west bank of the Millstone. In 1690 each was granted 2,750 acres between the Assinpink
and the Raritan, and 500 acres at Barnegat Meadow. Both were
active land traders throughout the proprietary period.26
Proprietor Richard Mew, a baker, was a prominent Quaker. In
1670 he was haled into court with Penn and others for attending an
unlawful service "to the disturbance of the peace." He was fined
twenty marks in this case which gave Penn a lasting fame. In 1676
Mew was appointed one of a committee by the Meeting for Sufferings
to correspond with persecuted Friends in Leicestershire, Nottingham, and Rutland. He knew George Fox personally. In 1677 Mew
and five other Quakers had purchased one of the One Hundred
Proprieties of West New Jersey. In 1682 he became one of the
Twenty-Four Proprietors of East Jersey. In 1685 he sold a half-share
to William Dockwra and the other half-share to John Hancock in
trust for the Sonmans family. Hancock was a business associate of
Arent Sonmans and the brother of Sonmans' widow. Unfortunately,
Hancock, who had obtained a fraction for himself from Thomas Cox,
died on the way to East Jersey late in 1685. I n March, 1686, the East
Jersey Board allotted one of the Wickatunk tracts to Richard Mew
and Peter Sonmans, revealing that the Sonmans' Heirs were in possession of the Hancock half-share.27
26 Besse, I, 461, 462, 480, 481, 484; I I , 316; Fox, Short Journal, 310, 313, 333; NJA, I I ,
449; X X I , 68, 122, 127, 188, 201, 203; Stair v. Bond, 82; MPEJ, 95, 97, 98, 167.
27 Besse, I, 426, 428; Fox, Short Journal, 136, 358, 359; Letters of Early Friends, 348; NJA,
I, 448; II, 204; XXI, 6s; MPEJ, 105,126.
27O
JOHN E. POMFRET
July
Thomas Cox was a well-known Quaker, and George Fox was a
frequent visitor in his home. In 1655 Cox had been sentenced by the
Old Bailey Quarter Sessions to seven years' banishment for his religious beliefs. The prison ship in which he was confined was captured
by the Dutch, who returned her human cargo to England. Cox was
later imprisoned in Newgate jail for refusing to pay tithes. He and
Clement Plums ted were in 1676 appointed by the Meeting for Sufferings to correspond with Friends in Norfolk and Cambridge regarding
the persecutions there. Cox disposed of his East Jersey share rapidly;
in April, 1685, he sold 13/40 to Sir Ewen Cameron of Lochiell, Scotland, and 7/40 to William Dockwra. The remaining half-share he
sold to John Backer, a London timber merchant who resided in
Fairlight, Surrey.28
Sir Ewen Cameron had married Jean Barclay, sister of Robert,
early in 1685, a n d this circumstance explains his participation in the
East Jersey enterprise. He never came to the province, but in 1687
his agent, John Barclay, obtained for him and for Dockwra their
share of Perth Amboy townland, 400 acres at Barnegat, and approximately 2,000 acres at Blue Hills.29
John Backer was a Quaker. As a boy he had been cruelly beaten
and deprived of his indentures by his master, a tailor, when he professed his membership in the Society of Friends. Several years later
he was confined in an unheated prison for several months in the
middle of winter, and in 1672 he and others were committed to Newgate for refusing to pay tithes. Backer emigrated to East Jersey in
1687 a n d resided at Wickatunk until his death in 1693. As was his
right he sat on the Board of Proprietors until 1690. He obtained his
Wickatunk allotment of 250 acres, 500 acres nearby, and 2,000 acres
on Doctor's Creek, also in Monmouth County. Shortly after he had
left London, the title to his half-share was seized by the Commissioners of Bankruptcy, and Robert West succeeded in purchasing it from
them. In 1693 West and Cox sold it to the West Jersey Society.30
Proprietor William Gibson, a native of Lancashire, was a London
haberdasher. He was a noted Quaker, and his funeral at White-Hart
28 Fox, Short Journal, 96, 311, 313; Besse, I, 403-406, 437; Letters of Early Friends, 346;
Stair v. Bond, 83; NJA, X X I , 69, 102.
29 NJA, X X I , 134, 181; MPEJ, 105, 162, 189.
30 Besse, 1,709; II, 407; NJA, X X I , 123,124; X X I I I , Pt. I, 23; MPEJ, 162,178.
I953
PROPRIETORS OF EAST NEW JERSEY
271
Court was witnessed by a thousand Friends. There he was eulogized
as "a zealous and courageous Sufferer in the Cause of Religion" and
as one who had been "often beaten and imprisoned for Christ's
sake." William Sewel, the first Quaker historian, relates that Gibson,
while a soldier in the Civil War, had gone to a meeting of Friends at
Carlisle intending to scoff, but instead was convinced and became a
notable minister. He was many times imprisoned, fined, and distrained of his goods. His name was a leading one among the Quakers
and appears with those of Penn, Whitehead, Barclay and others as
a signer of the epistles sent to all monthly meetings in 1672 and 1673.
Gibson was one of the Twenty-Four Proprietors of East Jersey and
also a First Purchaser of Pennsylvania with a modest interest of 500
acres. He never came to America, but he attended the proprietors'
meetings in London until his death in 1684. His heirs were his widow
Elizabeth and his two children. Thomas Boell, their agent in New
Jersey, secured for them 500 acres at Wickatunk and 2,000 acres on
the Millstone. In 1687 the Gibson propriety was purchased by West
and Cox, and in 1689 Cox as trustee for West sold it to Dr. Daniel
Coxe, speculator par excellence in New Jersey lands.31
In March, 1692, when Dr. Coxe conveyed his holdings in the
Jerseys and elsewhere in America to the West Jersey Society, he
owned two East Jersey proprieties. One, he referred to as "the West
share," and this was the share he had purchased from Edward
Byllynge and sold to Samuel Stancliffe. Later he regained control of
it. The other, "Mew's share," he had purchased from the Gibson
heirs. Through the good offices of Governor Hamilton, Coxe took up
7,500 acres of land to complete the first dividend on these two
proprieties. In his "Account" he valued them at £900 apiece and
estimated their dividends at one million acres, a gross exaggeration.
He spoke of having already arranged for dividends totaling 50,000
acres, which included 30,000 acres from Thomas Budd's Indian purchase, 5,000 acres on Doctor's Creek, and 5,000 acres at Wickatunk,
in addition to the 7,500 acres he had already obtained. Actually, the
share of Wickatunk lands to which he was entitled came to only
1,000 acres. Coxe's "Account" was truly a document prepared for
prospective purchasers. It is of interest to note that he valued land
31 Fox, Short Journal, 359, 370, 371; Besse, I, 255, 303, 309, 437, 438, 443, 452, 469; Letters
of Early Friends, 335, 34^; NJA, II, 205; XXI, 120; MPEJ, 125, 167.
2J2
JOHN E. POMFRET
July
"ordinarily scituated" at £10 per hundred acres, and land "well
scituated" at from £20 to £30 per hundred acres, both about double
their current price.32
Proprietor Hugh Hartshorne was a citizen of London and an
upholsterer by trade. His brother was Richard Hartshorne, one of
the first Quaker settlers in New Jersey, whom George Fox had
visited at Middletown in 1672 during his American journey. Hugh
Hartshorne, however, never came to East Jersey. He attended only
two proprietors' meetings in London prior to his death in 1684. J u s t
before or just after his death, his propriety was sold to the Sonmans'
Heirs. In 1766 one John Hunt laid claim to the Hartshorne share,
asserting that he had purchased the title to it from a granddaughter
of Hartshorne. Nothing came of this suit.33
Proprietor Thomas Hart (1629-1704) was a merchant of London,
who had resided for a time in Barbados. In 1676 Hart, then an
influential Friend, had been appointed by the Meeting for Sufferings
to correspond with Friends in Yorkshire and in Barbados. In 1684 he
was a signer of the famous "award" of leading London Friends which
recognized the right of Edward Byllynge to the government and
chief proprietorship of West New Jersey as against the claims of
Samuel Jennings, Thomas Budd, and other resident proprietors. Fox,
Penn, and Whitehead had also taken part in this important arbitration. George Fox visited Hart many times at his home, since the
Enfield Monthly Meeting was held in Hart's house. Hart preserved
his East Jersey share intact throughout the proprietary period, and
bequeathed it to his sister, Patience Ashfield. Through his agent
Thomas Boell, he had located large tracts of 1,000 to 3,000 acres on
the Rahway River, the Millstone, the Assinpink, at Barnegat, and
in Middlesex County, receiving also the usual assignments of land to
which the owner of a propriety was entitled.34
Proprietor Robert West, "the informer," was a lawyer of the
Middle Temple, London. He came to the fore briefly in 1684 as one
implicated in the Rye House Plot to assassinate Charles II. It was
alleged that his chambers were a rendezvous of the conspirators and
32 NJA, I I , 48-49; X X I , 234, 316, 435; Stair v. Bond, 83; MPEJ, 197; "Biographical
Notice of Dr. Daniel Coxe of London," PMHB, VII (1883), 331.
33 Fox, Journal, I I , 211, 435; Whitehead, East Jersey, 178.
34 Letters of Early\Friends, 347, 349; Fox, Short Journal, 308, 318; Stair v. Bond, 83; NJA,
X X I , SS, 98, 122, 123, 202, 203, 276; MPEJ, 2, 97, 98, 126, 138, 167, 178, 186, 188.
I953
PROPRIETORS OF EAST NEW JERSEY
273
that weapons, including "a very good blunderbuss/' had been collected there. West, who had turned informer, was freed on explaining
that he had gathered the arms for use in East Jersey where he had a
plantation! West has been described as a man of atheistical opinions
"with a peculiar antipathy to clergymen/' of pronounced republican
views, and of scant personal courage. He was long associated with
the London proprietors in an advisory capacity and in 1692, long
after he had disposed of his propriety, they voted him a gift of 960
acres "for his good services done and to be done to the public concerns of the province.'' The particular service alluded to was that of
aiding the proprietors in their defense of the right of government
which was being threatened by the Crown. In July, 1683, West conveyed his propriety to Thomas Cox, wealthy London vintner. Because of his knowledge of proprietary affairs, West had a hand in
arranging the sales of shares among interested persons. In these
transactions, as we have seen, he was on more than one occasion
joined by Cox, who was sometimes designated as "trustee for
West."35
Proprietor Robert Turner, the wealthy Dublin linen draper, was a
Quaker and a friend of long standing of William Penn's. When Penn
was in Ireland in 1669 he saw Turner, Samuel Claridge, and Anthony
Sharp several times. Like other Friends in Ireland, Turner was subjected to much abuse during the long years from 1657 until 1683,
when he emigrated to America. Indeed, he was molested more than
any other Irish Quaker. Money was taken from his till by the tithe
wardens with annoying regularity for the maintenance of the minister, and he was imprisoned frequently for keeping his shop open on
religious holidays. In 1678 he testified wearily that the wardens "had
taken out of his box he knoweth not how much money." On one
Christmas Day when he kept his shop open, a mob set upon his house
and shop with sticks and stones, breaking the windows and doors
and destroying his goods. Small wonder that Irish Quakers of means
like Turner, Sharp, Claridge, Sleigh and Roberts gave their wholehearted assistance to Friends' colonization in America.
In 1677 Turner and four other Irish Friends had purchased one of
the One Hundred Proprieties of West Jersey, and Turner himself
35 Robert Ferguson, The Plotter (Edinburgh, 1887), 75, 155, 156; Stair v. Bond, 83; NJA,
II, 49; XXI, 120, 159, 171, 197.
274
JOHN E. POMFRET
July
organized the settlement of the Irish Tenth (Gloucester County) in
1680-1681. He was also a First Purchaser of Pennsylvania with a
large holding of 5,000 acres, and in 1682 he became one of the
Twenty-Four Proprietors of East Jersey. Although he had his choice
of settling in any of the three Quaker-sponsored provinces, he chose
Pennsylvania. He arrived in Philadelphia in October, 1683, and resided there until his death in 1700. Turner separated from the Society of Friends on the Keithian issue and eventually joined the
Anglican Church. He was politically prominent in Pennsylvania and
was three times elected to the Council there. In 1683 he was designated by William Penn as one of five commissioners to govern the
province during his absence. He also served for a time on the Board
of Proprietors of West Jersey and was a member of the West Jersey
Assembly. He held no office in East Jersey.
Turner was a shrewd businessman and handled his East Jersey
holdings to good advantage. In 1685 he began to sell his propriety in
fractions, and by 1690 he had disposed of his whole landed interest.
He sold half his propriety to John Throgmorton and his twelve associates, who were, with one exception, residents of Middletown and
"old settlers/' Seven of the thirteen held a 1/10 interest each, and
six, a 1/20 interest each in the purchase. In 1688 this group located
its first dividend of 5,000 acres at the headwaters of Crosswicks
Creek in Monmouth County. Turner then sold a quarter-share to
John Johnstone, and the remainder of his propriety in small fractions
to other settlers.36
Proprietor Thomas Warne, the other Irish member of the TwentyFour Proprietors, in October, 1682, sold a third of his share to
Anthony Sharp and a third to Samuel Claridge, both merchants of
Dublin. In the same month, Claridge conveyed a fourth of his newly
acquired interest to Thomas Sisson of Dublin and a fourth to William
Bingley, a London merchant. Warne, himself, was a merchant, first
in Limerick, then for a brief period in Dublin. As a Quaker, he, too,
had experienced visits from the tithe warden. In March, 1684, he
emigrated to East Jersey with his son Stephen and eleven indentured
36 William Penn, My Irish Journal, 1669-1670, ed. by Isabel Grubb (New York, 1952), 26,
55; Besse, II, 466, 471; William Stockdale, The Great Cry of Oppression . . . (Dublin, 1683),
20, 43, 55, 84, 85, 106, 213-215; NJA> XXI, $6, 101, 116. The transfer by Nicholas Brown of
Shrewsbury to Stephen West of New England of 1/32 of 1/16 of }4 of 1/12 share is a prime
example of the process of fractioning in East Jersey. NJJ, XXI, 115.
I953
PROPRIETORS OF EAST NEW JERSEY
275
servants and settled in Monmouth County. He sat on the Board of
Proprietors during the whole proprietary period and was a signer of
the Surrender. He also sat as a justice of the Court of Common
Right. He died in 1722, leaving a considerable estate, which included
"seven Negro slaves valued at £120." As a member of the Board of
Proprietors, Warne was able to locate his lands to advantage. By
1695 he held tracts of more than 1,000 acres each on the South River,
on Stony Brook, and in Monmouth County, and smaller tracts at
Wickatunk, Toponemus, Barnegat and elsewhere. He resided at
Perth Amboy during most of the period.37
Anthony Sharp was perhaps the most distinguished Irish Friend of
this era. In 1669 he left his home in Gloucestershire to embark upon
a woolen export business in Dublin, an activity which in time developed into a manufactory which gave employment to hundreds of
persons. He was steadfast in his religious persuasion and suffered for
it. Through the years his goods and possessions were many times
distrained because he refused to contribute to the minister's maintenance, and in 1683 he was imprisoned for violating the Conventicle
Acts. Sharp became the mainstay of Dublin Meeting, the most important in Ireland. His prominent position in the economic life of
Ireland gave him access to the Viceroy, the Earl of Tyrconnel, which
he used in appealing for the relief of persecuted Friends. Like Turner,
he was the author or coauthor of several religious tracts. Sharp was
admitted to membership in the Weavers' Corporation without being
required to take the oath, and in 1689 he was chosen Master of the
Corporation, a high honor. After James II issued his Declaration of
Indulgence, Sharp and Claridge served as aldermen of Dublin.
Together with five other Irish Friends, Anthony Sharp had purchased a propriety of West New Jersey in 1677. He never migrated,
although his nephew Thomas Sharp became a leading settler in the
Irish Tenth in West Jersey. It was not until 1698 that Sharp applied
for the dividends of land on his East Jersey fraction. At that time his
friend Robert Turner, acting as his agent, obtained for him 5,800
acres of unappropriated land.38
37 Ibid., I, 530; X X I , 62, 166, 225, 251, 256, 261; X X I I I , P t . I, 491; Stair v. Bond, 86;
MPEJ, 2, 69; Stockdale, 253.
38 Stockdale, 8, 43, 105; Besse, I I , 483; Isabel Grubb, Quakers in Ireland, 1654-1900 (London, 1927), 40-59; MPEJ, 227, 228; NJA, X X I , 250, 327.
276
JOHN E. POMFRET
July
Samuel Claridge also suffered annoyance for refusing to conform
to the code of the Establishment. His goods were frequently distrained and he was imprisoned for attending Quaker meetings, for
refusing to contribute to the support of the Anglican minister, and for
refusing to contribute to the repair of the local church. In 1676 he
undertook to inform the Meeting for Sufferings through its correspondents, William Penn, James Claypoole, and Samuel Newton,
regarding the presecutions in Ireland. Claridge had purchased 1/3 of
Warne's share, but retained only 1/6 of it. In 1681 he became a First
Purchaser of Pennsylvania with a substantial purchase of 5,000 acres.
He never came to America, and his dividend of approximately 550
acres in East Jersey was taken up for him by Turner in 1698. Little
is known of Thomas Sisson, who had purchased 1/12 share from
Claridge and later sold it to Anthony Sharp.39
William Bingley, a cloth merchant of London and a prominent
Friend, also purchased 1/12 share from Claridge. He, too, was a
First Purchaser of Pennsylvania with a modest holding of 500 acres.
He was brought up in Yorkshire, but by 1682 had won distinction in
London as a Quaker minister. It was while on a missionary journey to
Ireland in 1682 that he met Claridge and purchased his fraction from
him. Bingley was fined and imprisoned a number of times for preaching and attending meetings in defiance of the authorities. From 1682
to 1697 he published seven religious tracts. On the occasion of Fox's
death in 1691 he was one of five Friends, including William Penn, who
gave a testimony at the burial at Bunhill Fields. It is not surprising,
therefore, to find Bingley among the three Friends personally identified in Francis Bugg's famous cartoon, 'The Quakers Synod," which
portrayed the Yearly Meeting of 1696. The others so identified were
William Penn and George Whitehead. Bingley took a large interest
in the famed "workhouse" maintained by the Bristol Meeting and
visited it many times. He never came to East Jersey. In 1692,
through the agency of John Barclay, he took up a grant of 840 acres
along the Millstone in Middlesex County.40
39 Letters of Early Friends, 349; Stair v. Bond, 86.
40 Arnold Lloyd, Quaker Social History (London, 1950), frontispiece, 42; Fox, Journal, I I ,
369-37 1 , 495, 496; Fox, Short Journal, 327; Besse, I, 454, 460, 475-477, 484; NJA, X X I , 234,
235; MPEJ, 198.
i953
PROPRIETORS OF EAST NEW JERSEY
277
As indicated earlier, this section will deal with the original Scots
proprietors and with those who purchased later. Since Governor Barclay wished to broaden the Scottish proprietorship as much as possible in order to stimulate Scottish colonization to East Jersey, a
great amount of fractioning took place. How successful Barclay was
in extending the Scottish interest is apparent in the following pages.
Unfortunately, no prolonged colonizing activity followed in the wake
of the wide distribution of ownership.
Proprietor James Drummond, Earl of Perth, early sold a quartershare to Sir George Mackenzie (Lord Tarbat) and a quarter to David
Toshard (Lord Minevard). Later he sold a quarter-share to the Sonmans' Heirs. In 1694, when he was in exile, Perth's agents in the
province located his lands there. His principal tract, one of 2,500
acres, was on Stony Brook in Middlesex County.41
Mackenzie was a brilliant advocate whose independent attitude
lost him more than one high position both before and after the
Revolution of 1688. In the end, however, he was created Earl of
Cromarty by Queen Anne, and is remembered principally for his aid
in bringing about the Act of Union between England and Scotland.
Mackenzie soon sold his quarter-share to Lord Neill Campbell, the
highly esteemed brother of the Earl of Argyll. The latter was executed for leading an insurrection against James II in the summer of
1685, a circumstance that drove Lord Neill into voluntary exile.
Presumably Lord Neill had intended remaining permanently in East
Jersey, for he had transported fifty-two indentured servants, "prisoners gifted him by the Council," the largest number of indentured
servants brought by anyone except George Scot. Campbell had also
joined with Robert Blackwood, an Edinburgh merchant, in the purchase of a half-share from William Dockwra, and the partners hoped
to profit from the investment through Campbell's presence in the
colony. Campbell died in 1693, bequeathing his holdings to his son
Archibald.
Minevard, too, came to East Jersey, but was disappointed and
soon returned. What he expected may be gleaned from his agreement
with John Campbell, who engaged "to send a footman in velvet to
wait on Monyvaird as a proprietor when Parliament is [in session] in
East Jersey." Before leaving, Minevard conveyed his quarter-share
41 NJA, I, 528; XXI, 68, 234; MPEJ, 84, 126.
278
JOHN E. POMFRET
July
to David Mudie, who had purchased 1/20 share from Sir John
Gordon before leaving Scotland. Although Mudie had sold the Minevard fourth by 1687, he was the only purchaser deriving an interest
from Perth to settle permanently in East Jersey.42
Proprietor John Drummond retained only a 3/8 share. In 1684 he
sold 1/8 share to John Campbell of Edinburgh and appointed Campbell as his proxy in East Jersey. Campbell arrived in the province in
company with his wife, three children, and eleven indentured servants. He served on the East Jersey Board from its beginning in 1685
until his death in 1689, and was also a member of the Assembly and
sat on the Court of Common Right. Campbell, as Drummond's
proxy, took up his lands in several tracts, the largest of which, 1,000
acres, he located on the south branch of the Raritan. After Campbell's death, Governor Hamilton obtained the additional 2,000 acres
to which Drummond was entitled on his first dividend. Meanwhile,
Drummond conveyed a half-share to the Sonmans' Heirs.43
Proprietor Robert Barclay's agents in the province took up the
lands to which he was entitled in several places, but before his death
in 1690 Barclay had sold only 1,000 acres. He did convey 1/10 of his
share to an English Friend, Edward Fleatham of Yorkshire, but in
1696 this fraction was purchased by Gilbert Mollison, Barclay's
father-in-law.44
Barclay had two younger brothers, David and John, both of whom
came to East Jersey. David, with Robert's aid, in February, 1683, a
month before the Duke of York's confirmatory patent was issued to
the Twenty-Four Proprietors, purchased a propriety from Thomas
Wilcox. To secure his title, he paid off a mortgage held by Thomas
Cox, the London vintner, and Charles Cox, brewer, of Surrey. Proprietor David Barclay had been appointed by Governor Barclay to
assist with the work of promoting colonization in East Jersey. His
special tasks were to keep the proprietors informed of the possibilities
of trade and to take charge of the cargoes sent out by the Scottish
42 Whitehead, East Jersey, 328; George P . Insh, Scottish Colonial Schemes (Glasgow, 1922),
234; Erskine o/Carnock's Journal, ed. by Walter McLeod (Edinburgh, 1893), 154; NJA, X X I ,
66, 68, 6% 126, 158, 211; MPEJ, 59, 74, 76, 102, 133-134, 145, 222; for David Mudie, see
below, page 290.
43 NJA, X X I , 6$, 140; X X I I I , Pt. I, 80; MPEJ, 2, 84, 92, 126, 149, 154, 200; Whitehead,
East Jersey, 440.
^Ibid., 448-449; MPEJ, 6$, 117, 126, 148, 162; NJA, XXI, 171, 181.
I953
PROPRIETORS OF EAST NEW JERSEY
279
proprietors. He was supercargo of the proprietors' expedition under
Rudyard and Groom which arrived in Perth Amboy in December,
1683. David Barclay and his associate Arthur Forbes remained in
East Jersey for some months, making an inspection of its resources
and its potential trade, and on their return, prospective settlers were
invited to consult them for first-hand information. While in the
province, Barclay was a justice on the Court of Common Right. In
August, 1685, while bringing a second cargo on the ^America, David
died. Robert, who inherited his estate, appointed his brother John
to be his agent in East Jersey. Some time before his death in 1690,
Robert sold David's propriety to the Sonmans' Heirs. In 1773 a
descendant of Barclay's contested the legality of this transaction, but
to no effect.45
Proprietor Robert Gordon of Cluny, Barclay's uncle, purchased a
propriety in order to provide for his younger son, Augustine, then an
apothecary surgeon's apprentice, in the hope that Augustine would
not be dependent upon his elder brother. At the request of Governor
Barclay, Gordon sold half his share to Gawen Lawrie upon the latter's appointment to the post of deputy-governor. For a time Gordon
considered transporting indentured servants and families on a leasehold basis and personally developing his lands. He died in 1688,
bequeathing his holdings to Augustine, then a full-fledged London
apothecary.46
Proprietor Arent Sonmans was a Dutch-born Quaker merchant
who had taken up residence in Scotland in about 1680. In 1677 he had
been on hand at Brielle to greet Fox, Penn, and Barclay, who were
about to undertake a missionary journey in Holland and the Palatine. On his removal to Scotland, Sonmans took a great interest in
Friends' colonization efforts in America. He became a First Purchaser
of Pennsylvania with a large holding of 5,000 acres; he was one of the
Twenty-Four Proprietors of East Jersey; and just before his untoward death in 1683, he purchased two of the One Hundred Proprieties of West Jersey. He met death in August, 1683, a t the hands of a
highwayman near Stilton in Hunterdonshire upon his return from
London in company with Robert Barclay, Gilbert Mollison, and
45 Ibid., X X I , SSi 56, 60, 69, 308; Whitehead, East Jersey, 136-137, 428-429, 450; Barclay
v. Stirling, 6,
46 JSfJA, XXI, 51, s$, 193; PNJHSy VII, 5, 9-11.
28O
JOHN E. POMFRET
July
several others. Sonmans was survived by his wife Frances and three
children, Peter, Rachel, and Joanna. Peter resided in East Jersey on
several occasions—during the proprietary period he was there from
1685 t o 1687—but neither of the others came. Rachel married Joseph
Ormston, a London merchant, and Joanna married Joseph Wright,
also a London merchant. Sonmans and Ormston were signers of the
Surrender.
The Sonmans' Heirs, as they are termed in the records, held five
and a quarter proprieties, by far the largest interest in the province.
These shares were obtained as follows: one purchased by Arent Sonmans; one by Gawen Lawrie in trust for the Sojnmans children; one
purchased from Hugh Hartshorne or his heirs; one from Robert Barclay—"the David Barclay propriety"; a half-share purchased from
John Drummond; a half-share purchased by John Hancock in trust
for the Sonmans children; and a quarter-share purchased from Perth.
Although the ownership of several of these shares was later contested,
the Board of Proprietors in November, 1692, clearly recognized the
Sonmans' title to five and a quarter shares. In the division of the
Wickatunk tract in March, 1686, among the Twenty-Four Proprietors, the Sonmans were assigned four lots, indicative of their right to
four proprieties at that early date. The Sonmans paid a total of £275
on five and a quarter shares between 1684 and 1696 in proprietary
assessments, the largest sum paid by any owner.47
Peter Sonmans acted as agent for the family interest until he left
East Jersey in 1687; from X688 until 1705 Miles Forster, a son-inlaw of Gawen Lawrie, was the Sonmans' proxy on the Board and
their agent. In 1692 Forster applied for warrants to locate 38,600
acres to complete the first dividend on five and a quarter shares. This
was the largest single grant made by the Board between 1682 and
1702. These lands were later located in two vast tracts, one of 23,000
acres in Middlesex County between the Millstone and the Raritan,
and the other, which contained 16,500 acres, on both sides of
Lawrence Creek in the same county. Peter Sonmans' quest for power
kept the province in a turmoil long after the proprietary period. He
was an unscrupulous man and surrounded himself with scheming
47
During his lifetime, Arent Sonmans made purchases "in trust for Sonmans' children"
because no proprietor was permitted to hold more than one propriety. This rule subsequentlybroke down.
I953
PROPRIETORS OF EAST NEW JERSEY
28l
men both in East Jersey and in London. He quarreled with his
brother-in-law, Joseph Ormston, and their quarrel, too, had repercussions in the province. Sonmans' later career belongs to the history of
the royal period.48
During the years from 1683 t o 1685, thirty additional Scots purchased fractions of shares from four London Quaker proprietors,
Heywood, Plumsted, Rigge and Cooper. Barclay was instrumental in
arranging these transfers, since he was eager to extend and broaden
the Scottish participation.
Proprietor John Heywood, like others among the Quaker proprietors, had suffered for his faith. He had been fined for preaching in
Southwark, and imprisoned seven months upon refusing to pay a fine
for attending a meeting. In 1686 he was among those discharged
from prison by virtue of the King's Pardon. Heywood quickly disposed of his propriety, selling it in March, 1683, t0 Robert Burnett, a
Scottish Quaker. Burnett was an intimate of the Barclays and the
Gordons and a zealous promoter of Scottish settlement in East Jersey. He, too, had suffered grievously during the persecutions in
Aberdeen and had been imprisoned several times in its notorious tolbooth. On one occasion, as a "landed man," he was fined a fourth of
his rents for attending a Quaker conventicle and 1/8 of his rents for
absenting himself from public worship. Undoubtedly, Burnett's
harsh experiences led him to interest himself in establishing a haven
in the New World for the Scottish Quakers.49
Burnett took an active part in the early promotion activities. In
addition to the propriety he purchased from Heywood, he bought a
half-share from Clement Plumsted. He sold both purchases rapidly
in fractions to a number of Scots. In 1683-1684 he conveyed the
Heywood share as follows: 1/16 to Andrew Jaffray, 1/8 to Dr. James
Willocks, 1/32 to William Gerrard, 1/32 to Robert Gordon of Edinburgh, 1/32 to James Miller, 1/32 to George Alexander, and 1/128 to
Robert Hardy. Dr. Willocks immediately conveyed 1/32 share to
Andrew Galloway. In 1693 Burnett sold 1/16 to Robert Sandilands.
48 Fox, Short Journal, 237, 238, 253, 254; NJA, I, 528-530; I I , 202, 459; X X I , 207, 306;
MPEJ, 126, 197; on the career of Peter Sonmans, see E. P . Tanner, The Province of New
Jersey, 1664-1738 (New York, 1908), and Donald L. Kemmerer, Path to Freedom (Princeton,
N . J., 1940).
49 Besse, I, 461, 468, 480, 484; I I , 503, 505, 508, 509, 515, 520, 524, 531, $33\ NJA, X X I ,
57, 76.
282
JOHN E. POMFRET
July
Of this group, JafFray, Galloway, Sandilands and, in all probability,
Gerrard and Miller were Quakers. Of the Plumsted purchase, Burnett
sold 1/8 share to Dr. William Robertson, I / I O to John Forbes, and
1/32 to Dr. John Alexander. Of all the Burnett purchasers, only Dr.
Robertson, John Forbes, and Robert Hardy took up residence in
East Jersey. James Miller came over in 1685, but returned in 1687.
Surprisingly, Burnett himself emigrated to the province in 1700 and
remained there until his death in 1714. He sat, as was his right, on
the Board of Proprietors in 1700 and 1701.50
George Alexander, an advocate of Edinburgh, and his brother
John, a physician, were represented in East Jersey by a kinsman,
Andrew Alexander. In 1685 they located their holdings jointly, taking up 400 acres in the Blue Hills area; in 1702 they acquired as a
second dividend approximately 300 acres on the upper Passaic. Dr.
Willocks of Kemnay in 1687w a s confirmed in the ownership of 850
acres at the junction of the Raritan and the Millstone and of four
acres of Perth Amboy townland. By 1697 his fraction had passed to
his son George, who had settled in East Jersey and had become
prominent in the affairs of the colony. Andrew Galloway, a merchant
of Aberdeen, who had suffered imprisonment during the persecutions
there, and William Gerrard, of the same city, were represented in
East Jersey by John Barclay. By 1688 Galloway was confirmed in the
ownership of 300 acres on the south side of the Raritan, eighty acres
at Barnegat, and a town lot in Perth Amboy, while Gerrard's land
was located in the Blue Hills area.51
Andrew Jaffray of Kingswells was a prominent Quaker minister
and an intimate friend of Robert Barclay's. On the occasion of Barclay's death, he gave a moving testimony at Kingswells Meeting.
From 1676 to 1679 he spent long terms in Aberdeen jail for preaching
to all who would listen. On one occasion, he was placed in solitary
confinement for preaching from the jail windows. In 1677, arrested as
a dangerous person for parading half-naked through the streets, he
told the authorities bluntly that the purpose of his exposure was to
50 Advertisement to all Tradesmen, Husbandmen, Servants and others who are willing to
Transport themselves into the Province of East New-Jersey in America . . . (Edinburgh, 1684),
reprinted in Insh, 233-237, who has attributed the authorship to Barclay; NJA, I, 529, 530;
XXIII, Pt. I, 76; Stair v. Bond, 84.
51 NJA, XXI, 58, 98, 112, 121, 130, 136, 137, 181, 182, 304, 307, 334; MPEJ, 83-84, 135,
150; Besse, II, 505, 508, 509, 517, 518, 530, 532.
I953
PROPRIETORS OF EAST NEW JERSEY
283
illustrate that the religious practices of the state were as offensive to
God as was his indecent conduct to the senses of man. Jaffray was
also the author of a religious tract. In 1689 J°hn Barclay, his agent
in East Jersey, took up his first dividend of 600 acres on the Manalapan River.52
James Miller, a portioner of Carronshorne, was in East Jersey for
about two years. Through his agent John Reid, he obtained 600 acres
on the Raritan. Just before his death in 1698, he sold his fraction to
one Andrew Burnett of Monmouth County. Through his agent John
Barclay, Robert Gordon, card-maker and citizen of Aberdeen,
located his lands on Bound Brook and on the Toponemus. After his
death in 1696, his fraction was sold to George Willocks. Willocks, on
his part, sold this 1/32 and the 3/32 he had inherited from his father
to Jeremiah Basse, deputy-governor of the Jerseys in 1698 and 1699 •
Robert Hardy, a merchant and "burgess" of Aberdeen, emigrated to
the province and took up a tract on the South River. For a brief
time before his death in 1688 he acted as agent for several of the
Scottish fractioners. Robert Sandilands, a friend of Robert Burnett
and of John Forbes, was also a Quaker and had suffered imprisonment in Aberdeen during the persecutions.
John Forbes of Aquorthes, brother of the Laird of Baynlie, had
been fined and imprisoned a number of times in Aberdeen for attending illegal conventicles. He had purchased 1/10 share from Burnett
in July, 1684,a n d was in East Jersey by October. He crossed the
ocean with a group of friends, among whom were Charles and
Thomas Gordon, John Barclay, and James Johnstone. Forbes transported three indentured servants. After making their way overland
from Maryland to East Jersey, a number of these men, including
Forbes, settled at Cedar Brook near the Blue Hills. Forbes located
his lands there and on the South River and was assigned townland
in Perth Amboy. He returned home, as he had planned, after locating
his lands, and on his departure in 1686, he appointed Robert Hardy
his agent. Dr. Robertson, listed in the Advertisement (1684) as "one
of several gentlemen going from Scotland," emigrated in 1685 a n d
settled along the Rahway not far from Elizabethtown. There he
located 700 acres and took up the remaining lands on his 1/8 share at
52 NJA, I, 529; XXI, 171; MPEJ, 180; Besse, II, 501, 503, 505, 508, 509, 517, 519, 524,
$&> S33-
284
JOHN E. POMFRET
July
Manasquan and at Barnegat Meadow. He was a close associate of
George, Charles, and Thomas Gordon, Robert Fullerton, John Barclay, and William Laing, all former neighbors in Scotland. He resided
in East Jersey until his death in 1693.53
Proprietor Clement Plumsted, from whom Burnett had purchased
a half-share, retained the other half. He never came to East Jersey,
but he did attend regularly the meetings of the London proprietors.
He was a signer of the Surrender of 1702. Through Thomas Boell,
also agent for proprietors Hart, Cooper, Barker and Benthall, he
obtained his proportion of lots and townland at Perth Amboy, 500
acres at Barnegat, 500 acres in the Shrewsbury tract, 250 acres at
Wickatunk, 2,000 acres on the Millstone, and 2,200 acres between
the Assinpink and the Raritan. His second dividend of 2,500 acres
was located in 1699 on Crosswicks Creek in Monmouth County.
Plumsted, a well-known Quaker minister, was an intimate of William
Gibson and Thomas Cox, fellow proprietors. In fact, Plumsted and
Cox were appointed by the Meeting for Sufferings in 1676 to correspond with persecuted Friends in Norfolk and Cambridge. Plumsted
was among the Friends against whom charges were pending and who
were released in accordance with the terms of the King's Pardon of
March, 1686.54
Proprietor Ambrose Rigge was a prominent Friends' minister for
many years. Born in Westmoreland, he resided most of his life at
Gatton Place, Surrey. He was imprisoned frequently for his religious
dissent; indeed, he was confined in Horsham jail for ten years, from
1662 to 1672. On one occasion, in 1658, he was taken from meeting,
dragged by his hair to the market place, and whipped, thrown in a
dung-cart, and paraded out of town, and was warned that if he
returned he would be whipped twice as much, branded, and banished. In addition to preaching, Rigge wrote many religious tracts;
his known titles number forty. He was one of the speakers at the
Gracechurch Street Meeting at the time of George Fox's death in
1691. Rigge disposed of his propriety rapidly, selling half in October,
53 NJA, X X I , 58, 73, 74, 75, 79, 103, 109, n o , 143, 205, 251, 254, 304; X X I I I , Pt. I, 21;
Stair v. Bond, 84; MPEJ, 58, 88, 101, 116, 122, 124, 150; Whitehead, East Jersey, 459-460;
Insh, 234; Besse, I I , 510, 513, 517, 519, 520, 530, 533.
54 Fox, Short Journal, 311; Letters of Early Friends, 347; Besse, I, 480; NJA, I, 530; II,
205, 459; XXI, 105, 122, 127, 305; MPEJ, 97, 98, 103, 126, 167, 188; Stair v. Bond, 84.
I953
PROPRIETORS OF EAST NEW JERSEY
285
1682, to Thomas Robinson of Brant Broughton, Lincolnshire, and
half in March, 1684, t o Robert Barclay.55
Thomas Robinson was a farmer of substance. As a Quaker, he
suffered imprisonment several times in Lincoln Castle for attending
conventicles and for refusing to pay tithes. For various offenses from
1678 to 1684, he was distrained of bullocks, steers, sheep and other
valuable livestock. Robinson, who never came to East Jersey, appointed Thomas Warne, the Irish proprietor, to act as his agent
there. During the period from 1685 t o 1687, Warne obtained for him
his proportion of Perth Amboy townland and Wickatunk land, 1,000
acres near Elizabeth, and smaller tracts along "the Burlington path"
and on the Raritan. In 1687 he sold his half-share to Andrew Hamilton, a physician of Edinburgh, but because of Hamilton's death
shortly afterward, this fraction after several conveyances was finally
purchased for £220 by David Lyell, a goldsmith of St. Martin's,
Middlesex. Subsequently, Lyell came to the province and resided
there until his death in 1726. He served on the Board of Proprietors
from 1701 to 1705 and was a signer of the Surrender in 1702. He was
an active trader in East Jersey lands.
Robert Barclay, following his program of extending the Scottish
interest, immediately sold his half-share of the Rigge propriety in
fractions of 1/20 to Robert and Thomas Fuller ton; Charles, Thomas,
and Dr. John Gordon; John Barclay; James and John Johns tone;
William Aickman and Sir John Dalrymple—all Scots. Barclay was
related to the Gordons, and Thomas Fullerton was the brother-inlaw of Dr. John Gordon. Of these men, the Fullertons, John Barclay,
the Johnstones, and Charles and Thomas Gordon came to East Jersey. Thomas Gordon became a prominent citizen of the province.56
The Fullerton brothers of Montrose were mentioned in the promotion tract of 1684, although the eldest of them, John, Laird of Kinaber, never became a proprietor. Robert and Thomas arrived in
October, 1684, after a rough voyage of eighteen weeks. Robert
brought with him nine indentured servants, and Thomas, ten. They
settled in the Cedar Brook area along with other Scottish fractioners.
55 Besse, I, 229; Fox, Journal, I I , 470-471; Letters oj Early Friends, 208; NJA, X X I , 79,
145, 292.
56 Besse, I, 353, 354,356; NJA, I, 529; II, 171,177,191,193, 213, 387, 459, 488; X X I , 79,
97,145, 292, 310,311,327,333, 334; MPEJ, 2, 63, 68,126,150; Stair v. Bond, 82, 84; William
A. Whitehead, Contributions to the Early History of Perth Amboy (New York, 1856), 84-85.
286
JOHN E. POMFRET
July
Robert wrote that "the land downwards, was already occupied by
the quitrenters of Piscataway, Woodbridge, and Elizabethtown."
Both were enthusiastic about the future of this "first inland settlement," and emphasized the need for a minister of the Scottish kirk.
The Fullertons were members of the Board of Proprietors at its
beginning in April, 1685, and sat for several years. Robert obtained
300 acres at Blue Hills and 150 acres "over Amboy," while Thomas
located his entire dividend at Blue Hills. Both obtained headlands on
the servants they had transported.57
Charles and Thomas Gordon also arrived in the fall of 1684.
Charles transported five indentured servants and settled at Cedar
Brook. In a letter he advised his brother John, the physician, to come
to East Jersey as a planter or trader, but not as a doctor, since there
were no illnesses to cure. He described Perth Amboy as a flourishing
metropolis with fourteen houses built and others building, "the best
scituate for a City of any I have seen, or for aught I can learn, of
any yet known in America.'* In 1687, after locating the bulk of his
land on the South River, he returned to Scotland, dying there in
1698. He sold his fraction to George Henrie, a merchant of Edinburgh. Dr. John Gordon remained in Scotland, although he had
transported two servants to the province. His agent located his land
on Stony Brook. By 1695 he had sold this land and his second
dividend of 250 acres.58
Thomas Gordon served on the Board of Proprietors throughout
the proprietary period and was a signer of the Surrender. He first
settled in the Cedar Brook area, but soon after moved permanently
to Perth Amboy. Within a year he had lost through illness his young
wife and several children; he later married Janet, the daughter of
David Mudie, another proprietor. In addition to his political activities, Thomas Gordon became an active land trader. He was also
proxy, agent, and attorney for a number of the proprietors in the
province and in England. In 1693 he acquired the fraction that his
brother Charles had sold to George Henrie and obtained the remainder rights to several other fractions. He also traded in head57 Insh, 234, 236; Whitehead, East Jersey, 441, 459, 463-464, 468; NJA> X X I , 97, 122;
MPEJ, 2, $$, 66, 73, 110, 136, 160, 199.
58 Whitehead, East Jersey, 450, 451, 452, 465-466, 467-468; NJA, X X I , 72, 125, 186, 223,
305, 3 H .
1953
PROPRIETORS OF EAST NEW JERSEY
2,87
rights, an unusual occurrence in East Jersey. He did not accumulate a
large landed estate, since his interest was in buying and selling lands.
Gordon held a variety of offices; in 1692 he was deputy-secretary and
register of the province, and in 1702 he succeeded Dockwra as secretary and register. He served also as attorney-general, judge probate,
receiver-general and treasurer, chief justice, assemblyman and
speaker of the Assembly. At the time of his death in 1722, he was a
member of Governor Burnett's council. He was a communicant of
St. Peter's Anglican church in Perth Amboy.59
John Barclay came to East Jersey in 1683 a n d returned the following year for his family and five servants. In addition to his fraction,
he had purchased 500 acres from his brother Robert, and had obtained 200 acres of headlands. He was never a large landowner. As a
member of the Board of Proprietors, he was in a strategic position
and, in consequence, was employed from time to time as proxy and
agent for a number of proprietors. He resided first at Plainfield in
Monmouth County, where he owned a tract of land, and later he
moved to Perth Amboy. Barclay sat on the East Jersey Board
throughout the proprietary period and signed the Surrender. He
served also as surveyor-general, and when Thomas Gordon was in
England in 1695, he was deputy-register and secretary. At various
times he served as clerk of the Court of Common Right, of the Court
of Sessions for Middlesex, and of the Supreme Court. He was also
elected to the Assembly. He fell out with Governor Cornbury, as
had Thomas Gordon. Peter Sonmans, too, was his enemy. Barclay
became a Keithian and followed George Keith into the Anglican
Church. At the time of his death in 1731, he was in poor circumstances, holding only the clerkship of St. Peter's Church.60
James Johnstone was in East Jersey by the fall of 1684. He settled
temporarily in the Scots colony in the Cedar Brook area. To his
brother John, an apothecary in Edinburgh, he, too, wrote of the need
of a minister. He described the "old settlers" as "a most careless and
infrugall People." They were "for the most part Protestants, [a] few
Quakers, some Anabaptists." John Johnstone sailed on the ill-fated
Henry and Francis in December, 1685, with George Scot and the
59 Whitehead, Perth Amboy, 61-63; NJA, X X I , 64, 104, 305; MPEJ, 73, 147, 162, 180.
60 NJA, X X I , 62, 66, 72, 182, 201, 206, 215, 308, 314; MPEJ, 243, 252; Whitehead, Perth
Amboy, 42-44.
288
JOHN E. POMFRET
July
large group of people he had obtained from the Scottish prisons.
John later married Scot's daughter Euphemia. James had, meanwhile, moved permanently to Monmouth County and had taken up
most of his lands south of the Toponemus. John located his lands
nearby at Scotschester, along Hope Creek. In 1690 James purchased
2,500 acres from Robert Turner, and John bought from Turner a
quarter-share, less the land that James had purchased out of that
fraction. James died in about 1697, leaving John as his residual heir.
Euphemia Johnstone was heir to her father's lands, and in addition,
in 1701 she was allowed 3,050 acres as headrights for the servants her
father had transported. Both Johnstone brothers served for periods
on the Board of Proprietors and John was a signer of the Surrender.
John, who lived until 1732, sat in the Court of Common Right and
for thirteen years in the Assembly, serving as speaker for ten years.
He was also for two years a member of Governor Burnett's council.61
William Aickman, a Scottish advocate, sold the lands he had
taken up on the Raritan and at Barnegat to his agent, the wellknown Scottish preacher, Archibald Riddell, who had settled at
Woodbridge. The 1/20 share that David Barclay had obtained he
bequeathed to Robert in 1685, a n d the latter conveyed it to John
in 1687. Sir John Dalrymple entered the East Jersey venture through
his association with Perth, Drummond, Mackenzie and other friends
of Barclay's in official circles in Edinburgh. His lands were located in
1692 on the Raritan. Dalrymple's career resembled that of Sir
George Mackenzie. Like Mackenzie, he was a brilliant advocate who
was frequently on the wrong side. However, after the Revolution of
1688, he rose to be lord advocate of Scotland and, for a short time,
joint secretary of state. Like Mackenzie, also, Dalrymple was helpful
in paving the way for the Act of Union between England and Scotland, and he was created Earl of Stair by Queen Anne in 1703.62
Proprietor Thomas Cooper was one of the London Quaker proprietors. In 1676 he was a member of the Meeting for Sufferings for
London and Middlesex. In 1683 he was fined for refusing to contribute to the support of the militia and two years later his goods
61 Ibid., 68-73; Whitehead, East Jersey, 433~435> 4^9, 475; Insh, 178; NJA, X X I , 68, 180,
187, 296; MPEJy 71, 105, 126, 187, 246.
62 NJA, X X I , 68, 69, 234, 291; MPEJ, 120, 149, 199; DNB, s.v. Dalrymple, Sir John.
Dalrymple, like Robert West of London, was arrested on suspicion of being implicated in the
Rye House Plot.
I953
PROPRIETORS OF EAST NEW JERSEY
289
were distrained upon his refusing to pay a fine. Cooper never came
to East Jersey, but did attend the proprietors' meetings in London.
In December, 1683, he sold a half-share to Sir John Gordon of
Durno, "knight and advocate of Scotland," but retained the remaining half. He was a signer of the Surrender in 1702. Thomas Boell,
Cooper's agent in the province, located his lands between 1685 a n d
1690. He accumulated 1,000 acres on Chingarora Bay, 500 at Passequenecqua, 500 at Barnegat Meadow, 250 at Wickatunk, 2,000 on
the Millstone, and 2,250 between the Assinpink and the Raritan. He
also received a lot and townland in Perth Amboy. Cooper died in
1706.63
Sir John Gordon of Durno, a cousin of Barclay's, sold his halfshare rapidly to a number of other Scots. He retained 1/10 and
conveyed 1/20 each to his brothers Sir Robert Gordon, the Younger,
and George Gordon, a merchant and shipper of Edinburgh. Sir John
also sold 1/10 to Charles Ormston, a merchant of Kelso; 1/20 to
Captain Andrew Hamilton, a merchant of Edinburgh; 1/20 to David
Mudie, a merchant of Montrose; 1/40 to David Falconer, a merchant
of Edinburgh; 1/40 to George Mackenzie of Kildin; and 1/20 to
Thomas Pearson, a mariner. George Gordon came to the province a
few months before his death, and Captain Hamilton, Mudie, Falconer
and Pearson took up residence there. The others did not emigrate.
Sir John himself was content to lend his name to the venture.
Through William Laing, his agent, he took up 500 acres at Wickatunk. He died in 1692, bequeathing his fraction to Sir Robert. George
Gordon arrived in East Jersey in 1686 to act as agent for Sir John,
but died within three months. He left small legacies to his "lifelong
companions" in the province—to his cousins John Barclay and
Charles and Thomas Gordon, and to Robert Fullerton, William
Laing, and Dr. William Robertson. After his death, his executors took
up his land at Wickatunk and obtained 200 acres for Sir Robert, as
his attorney. By 1692 Sir Robert Gordon owned 1/5 share. John Barclay served as his agent in East Jersey and obtained as his proportion
240 acres at Barnegat and 1,500 acres on the south side of the
Passaic.64
63 Besse, I, 462, 474; Letters of Early Friends, 349; NJAy X X I , 55, 66y 115, 122, 126, 203;
MPEJ, 95, 97, 103, 126, 167, 188.
64 NJAy X X I , 53, 71, 122, 127, 151, 180; X X I I I , P t . I, 190-191; MPEJ, 140, 198.
29O
JOHN E. POMFRET
July
John Barclay was also agent for Charles Ormston and secured for
him 120 acres at Barnegat and 1,000 acres "at the foot of Rockie
Hill" on the Millstone. Ormston, who never came to East Jersey, is
believed to have been a Quaker. George Willocks acted as agent for
George Mackenzie of Kildin and took up his lands at Barnegat and
on the Shrewsbury River "above Col. Morris iron works." In 1700 he
received 375 acres "in full for his first and second dividends" on
Cranberry Creek. David Falconer had invested £50 in the cargo of
1683. I n 1689 his agent, John Barclay, took up his 250 acres on the
Manalapan. His son John was in East Jersey for a short time, then
settled in Sassafras, Maryland. Thomas Pearson brought his ship
Thomas and benjamin to East Jersey in the fall of 1684 and thereafter regarded himself as a resident of Perth Amboy. He located the
500 acres to which he was entitled and the 375 acres headlands for
the servants he had transported on the South River. In 1685 he sold
his fraction to John Bowne of Middletown.65
David Mudie arrived in East Jersey in November, 1685, and in
two voyages he transported his wife, his eleven children, and nineteen
indentured servants. He settled in Perth Amboy, and erected a twostory dwelling complete with cellar, garret, orchard and garden. He
was proud of the water mill he had built—"the great wheel, 30 feet
Diameter . . . there is none such in this Countrey, nor ever was."
He located his 500 acres on the South River not far from Perth
Amboy, but in the following year, 1686, he sold his fraction, together
with his Wickatunk dividend, to David Vilant, a Scottish settler in
Perth Amboy. Mudie had purchased also a quarter-share from Minevard, which he sold, and he continued to trade in land. Mudie was
one of the original members of the East Jersey Board and attended
its meetings until within a few months of his death in February,
1696. He served also on the governor's council under Campbell and
Hamilton and sat on the bench of the Court of Common Right.66
Captain Andrew Hamilton was a great figure in New Jersey during
the proprietary period. He came to the province in the late summer
of 1686 as the confidential agent of the proprietors, and after Camp65 NJA, I, 530; X X I , 58, 68, 69, 145, 171, 180, 307, 312, 322; MPEJ, 5$, 59, 180, 197;
Wodrow, I I , 6; Insh, 234; Whitehead, East Jersey, 136-137.
66 NJA, X X I , 64, 68, 76, 77, n o , 190, 206, 237, 253; X X I I I , Pt. 1 , 3 3 ^ 3 3 ^ MPEJ, 54-55,
99; Whitehead, East Jersey, 432-433, 456-457, 459; Whitehead, Perth Amboy, 47-48.
I953
PROPRIETORS OF EAST NEW JERSEY
2(}I
bell's return, was made deputy-governor. He served long terms as
deputy-governor and governor of East and West Jersey, and was
their last proprietary governor. He was deputy-governor of Pennsylvania from 1701 to 1703 and had charge of the colonial postal service
from 1699 until 1703, the date of his death. He was endowed with a
fine sense of tact and judgment, but as the representative of a none
too popular absentee government, his position was difficult. Furthermore, during his entire period of service, proprietary government in
the Jerseys was under challenge by the Crown.
Hamilton built up a large landed estate in East Jersey during the
period from 1684t o I7°3- He worked closely with William Dockwra,
who was for a large part of this time secretary and register of the
province. Hamilton was entitled to 500 acres on his 1/20 share, he
received additional land for transporting servants, and he was
granted 500 acres by the proprietors for his services. He acquired
many tracts by purchase, and his widow continued to add to the
family holdings after his death. In 1703 he owned approximately
6,000 acres which were concentrated on the south branch of the
Raritan and along the Millstone and its tributaries. Although he was
a principal agent of the West Jersey Society and deputy-governor of
West Jersey, he acquired little land in that province.67
East Jersey was only nominally a Quaker colony, but for a brief
moment it was of real importance in Friends' thinking. Both Penn
and Fox glimpsed the possibility of a great dominion between the
Hudson and the Chesapeake that would wholly encompass the fertile
valleys of the Delaware and its branches. This was no small vision.
Pennsylvania, the new royal gift, buttressed by the Jerseys and "the
lower counties," would afford a limitless shelter for the Holy Experiment. It was a great tribute to Penn that he found among his Quaker
associates men who stepped forward quickly to aid him in purchasing
East Jersey, for at that very time, he was enlisting the support of
hundreds of First Purchasers to enable him to undertake his ambitious settlement in Pennsylvania.
But having obtained East Jersey so unexpectedly, Penn was perplexed as to the next move. He and many of his closest associates
67 Stair v. Bond, 83; NJA, XXI, 6$, 67, 68, n o , 152, 153, 154, 156, 180, 206, 223, 278;
MPEJ, 77, 92, 104, 105, 122, 142, 147.
292
JOHN E. POMFRET
July
among the Quaker leaders were fully engaged with the Pennsylvania
enterprise. At this moment young Barclay appeared, fired with the
possibilities that East Jersey afforded for the Scottish Quakers. To
him, then, was given the opportunity of developing that segment of
the Quaker dominion. Since the Scottish Quakers were relatively few
in number and financially unable to promote a major colonization,
Barclay, a man of unusual imagination and resourcefulness, turned
for aid to his relatives—the Drummonds, powerful politically, and
the Gordons, some of them landed men, others active in business and
the professions. He persuaded them that East Jersey could be made
to pay dividends. Many of them, in turn, saw in East Jersey not only
an investment, but a land of promise for their landless younger sons,
an opportunity for them to get away from a country of incessant
persecution, fratricidal strife, and unrest.68
Barclay's vision was greater. He knew well that the Scottish persecutions might be renewed, at Aberdeen or elsewhere. Relief had come
about through his personal influence, because James II momentarily
was well disposed toward him. But a hatred of the Quakers still
rankled. Early in 1683 ^ e bishop at Aberdeen had represented to the
Scottish privy council that "the Quakers in toune and shyre have
most insolently taken upon them[selves] to erect publick buriall
places . . . after the same was dimolished by the magistrats, and in
the severall paroches have built publick meeting houses and schooles
for traineing up their children in their godles and hereticall opinions. . . ." And King James was not one to be depended upon, for
in 1685, when Barclay's influence was greatest, James had written,
"I have not great reason to be satisfied with the Quakers in general. . . ." The time might come when he would no longer have need
of their good will. Barclay hoped, too, that East Jersey might become a haven for the common people of Scotland, "hardly being able
all their life to acquire so much Riches as they can save themselves
from begging or starving when they grow old; meantime their children are exposed to the Cruelties of Fortune and charity of others,
naked and hungry, begging Food and Rayment from those that
either can not or will not help them. . . ." Yet neither appeal was
great enough to overcome the love of home, even among the poorly
68 Present in East Jersey were the younger brothers of the lairds of Minevard, Baynlie,
Barula, Kinaber and Straloch.
1953
PROPRIETORS OF EAST N E W J E R S E Y
293
circumstanced. The prospect of a strange land and a dangerous
voyage was too fearsome.69
The East Jersey of the Twenty-Four Proprietors was a Quakerinitiated, rather than a Quaker-administered, enterprise, for it failed
to produce a single Quaker settlement. Instead, a Scottish settlement,
Perth Amboy, became the capital of the province. The change in
composition of the proprietors from a group of Quaker leaders about
London to a steadily increasing non-Quaker Scottish group had repercussions in the province. The resident Board of Proprietors of
East Jersey, for example, was a predominantly Scottish, non-Quaker
body. Among the first Scottish emigrants were a few Quakers; among
those who came later, practically none. Few, if any, Quakers came
as indentured servants.
The resemblance between the provinces of East and West Jersey
is quite superficial and is most apparent in the similar methods of
distributing lands. The West Jersey proprietors were, above all, concerned for the success of West Jersey as a Quaker enterprise, thus the
sense of mission was high; while in East Jersey, in spite of Robert
Barclay, it was virtually missing. More than a fourth of the owners
of the One Hundred Proprieties of West Jersey were residents of the
province; of the Twenty-Four Proprietors of East Jersey only one,
Thomas Warne, the Irish Quaker, took up permanent residence in
the colony. Rudyard, Groom, and Lawrie came for brief periods as
officials; David Barclay died on his second journey to the province;
Penn and Turner were visitors only. The proxy and the agent loom
large in the East Jersey records. Even prior to Barclay's death in
1690 it was clear, perhaps inevitable, that East Jersey was to be a
business speculation. Under the circumstances, the right of government by 1688 had become a liability; land was the only asset of value.
The Quaker "capture" of East Jersey was a fruitless one as far as
the annals of that province are concerned. But in the history of the
Quaker colonies it has a significance never fully appreciated. The
sponsors of the enterprise were part and parcel of the group that
strove for many years to provide a new freedom for the persecuted
throughout the Delaware basin. For a brief time, then, East Jersey
fell within the orbit of the Holy Experiment.
Huntingdon J^jbrary
69 Advertisement to allTradesmen
JOHN
. . . (Edinburgh, 1684).
E.
POMFRET